1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to medical aids and more particularly, to a hip lifter or pelvic support for supporting and positioning the pelvic portion of a patient in an elevated position for examination or other medical procedures.
2. Prior Art
Gynecological examination of female patients and other gynecological procedures not requiring an operating room environment are performed in a variety of medical settings. Examples of these settings are hospital emergency rooms, hospital wards, labor and delivery rooms, doctor's offices, and radiological facilities. Most, if not all, of these settings lack access, or at least immediate convenient access, to the patient supporting and lifting devices which are either essential to or extremely desirable for performing many gynecological examinations and other gynecological procedures.
In this regard, for example, gynecological or pelvic examination of a female patient is most easily and effectively performed with the patient in a prone position, with her pelvic portion supported in an elevated inclined attitude, and with sufficient clearance between the patient's pelvic region and the patient's support to permit unrestricted use of a speculum or other medical instrument required in the procedure. A regular gynecological examination facility is equipped with a gynecological examination table, commonly referred to as a GYN table, which is designed to support the patient in this proper attitude. The other medical settings referred to above, however, lack such GYN tables, or at least convenient immediate access to such tables.
For example, a typical hospital emergency room has an average of ten examination tables for non-gynecological examinations and one additional table, usually in an enclosed area, for all gynecological and obstetrical examinations. Although the percentage of obstetrical and gynecological patients visiting an emergency room is not high, occasions arise when there may be up to a three-hour wait for access to the gynecological examination room. There is, therefore, a great need for an alternative way of performing gynecological examinations and other emergency room gynecological procedures using the regular emergency room examination table.
A similar need exists in most hospital labor and delivery rooms. Thus, unlike the beds in a hospital ward, so-called labor beds, that is beds occupied by women in labor, are specially designed to be wheeled in and out of the labor room with ease and are equipped with means for elevating the patient's head and knees, as appropriate during labor and delivery. However, this type of bed is very inadequate for many normal gynecological procedures, such as speculum examination or obtaining a blood sample from the fetal scalp. In the past, this deficiency of the labor bed has been overcome by using an inverted bedpan as a pelvic support for positioning the patient in the proper position for examination. Obviously, this solution is totally inadequate.
Moreover, because of this unsuitability of a standard hospital bed for gynecological examinations, a patient who requires a complete gynecological examination often has to be transferred from the patient's room to a special gynecological examination room and then back to the patient's room. This transfer involves moving the patient from her bed to a gurney, then from the gurney to the gynecological examination table, and finally from the examination table back to the gurney and finally from the gurney back to the patient's bed. If the patient is strong enough, a wheelchair may be employed to transfer her between her bed and the examination table. In either event, the transfer requires a nurse and at least one attendant. It is recognized, however, that if a proper hip lifter or pelvic support were available, many of these examinations could be performed in the patient's own bed, thus eliminating the time, labor, and often trauma associated with the transfer procedure.
Another medical setting which presents a problem with regard to gynecological examinations is the doctor's office. Thus, except for the offices of obstetricians and gynecologists, most doctors' offices in this country have only regular non-gynecological examination tables. The reason for this is that such doctors seldom see gynecological patients and, more importantly, gynecological examination tables cost several hundred dollars more than regular examination tables. As a result, when a patient requiring a gynecological examination or other gynecological procedure visits such a doctor's office, she is either referred to a gynecologist or must be examined while lying on a stack of towels or on an inverted bedpan.
Finally, there is the problem of conducting gynecological procedures in radiology facilities. In this regard, a gynecological procedure called hystero-salpingography is frequently done in a radiology office setting. In most cases, medical offices of this type are not equipped with a gynecological examination table for positioning the patient in the proper attitude for conducting the procedure. Moreover, the standard inverted bedpan cannot be used as a hip lifter or pelvic support since the pan is constructed of metal and is thus opaque to the X-rays which are utilized in the procedure. As a consequence, towels are used as a means of properly positioning the patient. However, because this particular procedure takes a substantial period of time, patients frequently complain of discomfort caused by the stack of towels which is used.
A variety of body supporting and positioning devices have been devised, of course, for aiding such gynecological examinations and other gynecological procedures. By way of example, devices of this character are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 784,425; 3,813,091; and 3,532,336. The devices disclosed in these patents, however, and other similar devices which have been devised, are ill-suited to their intended purposes and, as a result, have not been widely accepted.
Accordingly, a definite need exists for an improved hip lifter or body supporting and positioning device for the purposes described.